Autobotography Approach – LorenH

Abstract: This project consists of two cubes that connect with each other over distance. They heat and light up from the other cube being touched, connecting two people across any distance with a tactile object that delivers a different experience than a phone.

Visual:

This light cube would be able to fit comfortably in one’s hands. It would be made from a white, pillowy rubber or silicone, something that is easy to clean, nontoxic, tactile, squishable, transparent enough for light to emanate from it. I would want to make it rechargable by sitting on a little stand that compliments its shape, as seen in the first image above.

Background:

Features:

• There are two or more cubes that connect with each other over wifi.
• They heat up and glow various colors when the person “on the other end” touches theirs.
• You can control what colors are shown with either an app or possibly minimalist buttons on the device.
• The heat that comes off the cube is correlated to how squished the other cube is — it is based on pressure.
• It has a minimalist dock that it recharges on.
• They can work at any distance apart as long as there is a wifi signal. I would like to try to also make it be able to use wifi from people’s cell phones.
• There is a sleep mode the user can put the cube into when they don’t want it to light up or heat up at certain times.

Explanation:

I want to make two “light cubes” that are shared between two loved ones. They light up when the other person, across potentially miles of distance, touches theirs. I want the design to stay minimalistic so that it blends into nearly any environment, and so that they can be personalized.

Some ways I’m thinking that the user could personalize it is to be able to choose what colors glow when the other person sees that they are touching it. This opens up the potential for more meaning in the message – colors have certain moods, or one may know the other person’s favorite color and choose to light up their cube with that color as a means to cheer them up, etc.

I want this to be different than what a phone can do. I want the cube to be holdable and tactile, and incorporate a sense of touch that communicating through a phone can’t provide. The cube would also heat up where ever the other person was specifically touching it, and the heat would increase with how hard the user was squeezing it, which would mimic human warmth and touch. This project also allows people to communicate without words. If I want to tell my best friend that I miss them, I can make their cube glow and they may see it while cooking dinner or doing homework, and in that way I am quietly whispering that I love them to them without the ding of a text or having to use words.

Credits:

Designed by me.

Budget:

Building of the two cubes: I would need more info on what materials I could use, but I imagine some basic wiring and LEDs would do the trick, as well as some sort of circuit-board (if that’s the name?) inside. The cubes themselves could be a smooth, weather and life resistant squeezable rubber.

So: ~$100, but this is definitely tentative as I am new to learning about this technology.

Time to Build It: ~20 hours. At $10/hr, $200

Total: $300